High performance heat exchangers known as compact high intensity coolers (CHIC) provide high capacity cooling with heat flux capabilities in excess of 100 watts per square centimeter at 0.15.degree. C. per watt. These CHICs are difficult and expensive to manufacture and are not subject to mass reproduction.
The Assignee of the present invention has developed CHIC coolers using jet impingement cooling. These jet impingement heat exchangers utilize a series of plates which are fabricated with apertures which create jets of fluid passing through the apertures which impinge upon subsequent solid surface areas of other plates to provide jet impingement cooling. A core of this type of jet impingement CHIC type heat exchanger is made by forming a series of plates into a fluid-tight structure which, when coupled to suitable manifolding, provides a tortuous path of fluid flow from an inlet manifold to an outlet manifold through the core with jets of fluid being created by passage through various apertures within the plates within the core. Representative samples of jet impingement CHIC type heat exchangers developed by the Assignee of the present invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,880,055 and 4,494,171. The Assignee has developed additional heat exchangers which are fabricated from plates which are formed into a core with the plates forming jets to produce jet impingement cooling. Furthermore, high performance CHICs of this type require orifice diameters in the apertures of the plates which vary between 0.005 to 0.015 inches which require expensive manufacturing processes in order to provide uniformity of diameter. Variation in the diameter in the orifices affects the overall cooling performance. Finally, assuming that the orifices may be fabricated within the aforementioned dimensional range, in practice, the working fluid flowing through the core must be extremely clean and filtered to remove particulate debris which can plug the orifices.
Most electronic devices require a heat dissipation capability less than the aforementioned 100 W/cm.sup.2 at 0.15.degree. C. per watt with a range of 30-50 W/cm.sup.2 at 0.15.degree. C. being a typical heat dissipation capability to maintain performance of electronic devices. A need exists for a mass reproducible, inexpensive jet impingement CHIC having a heat dissipation capability less than the high performance CHICs which are formed from plates fabricated into a core which have the aforementioned difficulties of expense and complex manufacturing processes.